My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Saturday, 8 October 2016

Noël Lemire’s etching of the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux’s ceiling, “Apollo and the Muses accepting the dedication of a temple devoted to them by the city of Bordeaux."

Noël Lemire (akaNoël Le Mire) (1724–1801)

"Apollon
et les Muses agréant la dédicace d'un Temple qui leur est consacré par la ville
de Bordeaux" (Apollo and the Muses accepting the dedication of a temple
devoted to them by the city of Bordeaux), 1781-2, after the ceiling design painted
in 1770 by Jean-Baptiste Claude Robin
(1734-1818) in the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux.

Etching and
engraving on laid paper, trimmed within the plate marks and lined on a support
sheet.

Condition: an
excellent impression of a print of the utmost rarity (perhaps only two other copies are extant). There are small tears, a
few abrasions, a dot stain towards the centre of the image and the paper has
areas where it is thinned. The latter issue is noticeable with the print is lit
from behind. There is a vertical fold, but this and the other issues are
stabilised and professionally restored. The sheet is lined to a conservator’s
support sheet.

I am selling
this exceptionally rare and huge etching for a total cost of AU$723 (currently
US$548.49/EUR490.12/GBP441.17 at the time of this listing) including postage
and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this print which was the sole source of information
about the ceiling before it was destroyed, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This is a huge etching executed in the grand manner: bold, monumental
and awe inspiring. The print may not be as large as the truly massive prints of
the court painter to Louis XIV, Charles Le Brun (1619–90), that measure a
staggering 91 x 152 cm (3 x 8 ft.), nevertheless, the size at approximately 65
cm is undoubtedly meant to be visually arresting—a genuine “crowd stopper.” Not
only is it impressively big, it is also designed to sustain a viewer’s interest
and to engage with the viewer in a reflexive way. What I mean by this notion of
reflexivity is that viewers wishing to read the text encircling the worm’s-eye
view of the ceiling are physically obliged to turn the print in a clockwise direction,
or to rotate their angle of reading, to understand what is written.

Regarding the
rarity of this print I believe (and I may be wrong) that there are only two
other impressions of this print: one copy in the Museum of Decorative Arts in
Bordeaux and another in Versailles. Interestingly, when the ceiling was
destroyed and later restored, this print was the sole record of the original decoration.
In short, this is a historically important and very rare print.